LA Chargers: Team grades from Justin Herbert’s explosion against the Jags

For the first time in over a month, the LA Chargers got back in the win column. How did each unit on the team grade against the Jaguars?

Justin Herbert finally got the first win of his NFL career against the Jaguars on Sunday. The rookie lit the field on fire with 347 yards, three passing touchdowns, and one rushing touchdown. Other than a few misses in the first quarter, Herbert was about as perfect as he could be.

The biggest change for the LA Chargers‘ offense in this game was trusting Herbert to throw on early passing downs. On early downs (quarters 1-3) in their first five games, the Chargers had been the most run-heavy team in the league, passing just 46% of the time.

This week, the Chargers passed on those same downs 59% of the time. The NFL average is 54%, so there was definitely a philosophical change this week.

As long as Herbert is playing this well, the Chargers have to continue giving him all of the responsibility he can handle. He also had 66 rushing yards, 31 of which came on a designed 1st and 10 fake.

With the state of the running game and offensive line, Herbert will have to carry the load for the Chargers’ offense. There’s no way around it until Austin Ekeler, Trai Turner, and Bryan Bulaga are all healthy. At the very least, they need Ekeler back to have a mildly efficient run game.

Unfortunately, the lacking secondary and run defense this week also demonstrated why Herbert will have to carry the Chargers for a while.